The burning past
by Coffeeskater
Summary: A look at Team RWBY and Pyrrahs lives after the living nightmare that Beacon became (RWBYQuest post game, tumblr drabble)


It affected them all, to varying degrees. The nightmare they had survived. Or in the case of some, the nightmare they never woke up from.

Weiss, while proud and determined, Clung to Ruby like a child for a month after they left the nightmare behind (but only physically, what had happened to them smeared their insides with darkness and pain for the rest of their lives.) Ruby helped Weiss and guided her, teaching her how to adjust to life without her eyes. She held her when she woke in the night screaming and crying (but only ever the noises, the jumping of her chest, the whimpers and phantom pains of her eyelids closing and tears rolling down her cheeks, she'd never cry again, not without her eyes.) Learning to live life with only vague shapes of color and aura was rough but Ruby never faltered in her faith and support.

Ruby was the least untouched, not to say she was okay, none of them would ever be okay again. Of all of them she had lost the least. She had seen the best and the worst, the bodies, seen her friends die. Her nightmares were the worst (Weiss was always there to sooth her and lull her back to sleep with a lullaby and soft touches.) The voices in her head had left along with the remains of her childhood and the dome.

Blake hid herself, hid her guilt at having shot her partner her team told her every time she hadn't shot her, that that wasn't Yang, she was protecting her friends. But it still haunted her, every waking moment. It would wake her at night, the feeling of hot sticky blood mixed with blonde hair in her hands. Like clockwork Yang would awaken and with a soothing warmth. (Save her right hand, her right hand was always cold and it was a bitter reminded of what had been lost.) She would kiss Blake softly and cradle her close, scratching her ears and sometimes humming to her, until Blake could no longer keep her eyes open and she'd fall asleep in Yang's arms, her hands clasped around her human hand, a left over reflex from whenever they'd slept in the dome.

Yang was arguably the strongest of the four, yet the most broken from the whole ordeal. She'd lost her right hand and eye, a sacrifice she never regretted. She'd done it for her friends, for Blake, for Ruby. She'd sometimes lose herself in the pain, screaming and sobbing, doubling over as the broken glass that replaced her blood in her veins rushed through her. Blake held her, kissed her all over until the pain and pangs faded, leaving a broken whimpering blonde in the lap of the Faunus. It was during these moments when her vulnerability would show, her insecurities, her regret at having become one of them and at failing to be there for her team. (Even though she had and 3D had not been Yang but a suitable filler for the hole in the hearts of her friends until she had come back.) Blake would hold her and tell her over and over that she had done her best and even though I hadn't been her, she'd been every inch the woman they'd needed.

Pyrrah still had flashes of flying through a darkened sky, of burning. Still remembered the lava pouring from her own eyes and mouth, the pain of her fang digging into her upper lip. It scared her and she tried to hide it by sneaking from the apartment and by boxing with the punching bags her and Yang had strung up in the trees behind their building. As if they Knew, Yang and Weiss would come to her, Yang would box with her and Weiss would criticize them and offer help until she either collapsed in exhaustion, Then Yang would carry her back to her and Blake's bed where she'd wake up sandwiched between the Faunus and brawler, warm and safe and undoubtedly loved. Or shed break down into sobs And Weiss who related much more than Yang could (Yang had been helpful, she'd cared, they had been monsters) Weiss would hold her and sometimes cry with her until their tears dried and the heiress would pull her into the bed she shared with Ruby and she'd wake up between them, often to Ruby's sympathetic smile and Weiss's offer of breakfast in bed for her girls in red.

What had happened changed them all, but they found comfort in each other. Yang and Blake were the first to get married. Weiss and Ruby soon followed. Pyrrah had taken longer to move on, but eventually found someone who loved her for her, baggage, nightmares and living situation accepted with ease. Despite having moved on (No, learned to live around what had happened never quite move on) they never moved out of that apartment. The first home they had after beacon, the apartment where they had healed each other. It was sometimes cramped, with three couples and six people sharing a penthouse. Not a single one of them would trade it for the world. They never complained. They had each other and their home.

It's all they could ever ask for.


End file.
